‘Murdoch papers paid off British officials’

The officer,Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers,said that e-mail records showed that there was a “culture at The Sun of illegal payments” that were authorised “at a very senior level within the newspaper” and involved “frequent and sometimes significant sums of money” paid to public officials. The testimony was a sharp new turn in a months-long judicial investigation of the behaviour of Murdoch-owned and other newspapers,known as the Leveson inquiry. It detailed financial transactions that showed both the scale of bribes,the covert nature of their payment and seniority of newspaper executives accused of involvement. In a statement,Murdoch,the head of News Corp,said: “We have vowed to do everything we can to get to the bottom of prior wrongdoings.”

Akers said that one public official receiving more than $125,000 over several years,and a single journalist of The Sun was allocated over $238,000 to pay sources,including officials.

The revelations were not limited to The Sun,but extended to The News of the World. According to a lawyer for the Leveson Inquiry,Rebekah Brooks,former chief executive of News International,was told explicitly by police in 2006 that at least 100 people had had phones hacked by a private investigator working for The News of the World.

Singer paid $951,000 by Murdoch firm

Charlotte Church,26,who testified before a media inquiry of being hounded by Rupert Murdoch’s journalists when she was a teen singing sensation,received $951,000 Monday in phone hacking settlement from News International. AP